‘Who has stirred up one from the east,
    calling him in righteousness to his service?
He hands nations over to him
    and subdues kings before him.
He turns them to dust with his sword,
    to wind-blown chaff with his bow.
3 He pursues them and moves on unscathed,
    by a path his feet have not travelled before.
4 Who has done this and carried it through,
    calling forth the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord – with the first of them
    and with the last – I am he.’

The nations have every reason to fear. Why? A new super power is emerging and a new despot is about to make an appearance. ‘Cyrus’ is his name – the King of Persia. It’s not that he’s a decent chap. Far from it. He is not a man to mess with. When we read that God called him ”in righteousness” it doesn’t mean that he is righteous, but he will fulfil God’s righteous purpose, i.e. the restoration of Israel.

This passage reads even more graphically in ‘The Message’:

“Who got things rolling here,
    got this champion from the east on the move?
Who recruited him for this job,
    then rounded up and corralled the nations
    so he could run roughshod over kings?
He’s off and running,
    pulverizing nations into dust,
    leaving only stubble and chaff in his wake.
He chases them and comes through unscathed,
    his feet scarcely touching the path.

4 “Who did this? Who made it happen?
    Who always gets things started?
I did. God. I’m first on the scene.
    I’m also the last to leave.

In spite of all the fearful things Cyrus will do, it is obvious who is in charge around here. It is God who will raise him up and use him to get his people back home (see Isaiah 44:28; Ezra 1:1-4). ‘History is HISstory.’ When every Cyrus has come and gone, He who always was there will still be there – forever. From ‘everlasting to everlasting’ He is God. Because He was there before, and will be there after, He could announce the coming of Cyrus a century before He was born.